After a holiday-induced delay, here are the rest of our picks for albums we liked this year:

Lucero – Texas & Tennessee
Its a brief 4 song EP, but anything from Lucero is worth celebrating. This one even has a train song . In contrast to the more uptempo, horn-driven material on their latest 2 records, this is a stripped down acoustic affair. Its also worth mentioning we finally got a chance to see these fellows live in Asheville, and they did not disappoint.

Restorations – LP2
Whether due to the move away from Gainesville, or just growing boredom with the genre, this was one of the few punk albums that really stuck in our playing rotation this year. Its sad and introspective stuff, a soundtrack to the tumultuous transition to early adulthood. The tempo shifts – from the meandering “In Perpetuity Throughout the Universe” to the rollicking “New Old” – add variety and diversity and helping it stand out from the pack.

Speedy Ortiz – Major Arcana
The ghost of Pavement haunts this album of this indie band from Massachusetts. Crunchy slacker anthems that were a good fit for the period of crushing uncertainty we experienced while awaiting the conclusion of a torturous job hunt.

Parquet Courts – Light Up Gold
Some irreverent garage punk from Texas. Veers wildly between boastful/cocky jams and biting social commentary – another good encapsulation of life in your mid-20s.

Water Liars – Wyoming
Everything this prolific group does hits us like a ton of bricks, and this was no exception. Their great tunes, crushing lyrics, and perfectly melancholic vocals sucked us in for a long time.

A 2013 recap list would also be remiss if it did not mention the sad passing of Jason Molina, mastermind behind Songs:Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co. In case you missed it, one of our favorite posts we’ve done here was on the many trains that appear in his work. We’ll leave you all with this phenomenal bonus track off the 10th anniversary reissue of his classic album “Magnolia Electric Co.” We are hoping to catch one of the memorial shows feature members of his band and Hiss Golden Messenger when they swing through NC next month.

…And there you have it – a bunch of stuff we have been into this year. We are already eagerly anticipating new albums in 2014 from Titus Andronicus, Pallbearer, Agalloch, Alcest, The Drive-By Truckers, among others, so the new year should be a good one, at least musically speaking. On a personal level, its going to be hard to match the changes and transformations of 2013, but that’s probably a good thing.

And with the conclusion of this retrospective, we will back to our usually scheduled train song programming shortly.

For the second edition of year-end selections we are drifting over to the darker side of the spectrum. Though we are admittedly not as in touch with developments in the metal world as we once were, we still make an effort to seek out new stuff, and some of it really sticks around our listening routine.

Cult of Luna – Vertikal
A post-metal concept album based on the movie Metropolis – what’s not to like about that? In a genre that has almost become a cliche for predictable slow-builds and climaxes, Cult of Luna push the boundaries of their sound by working in electronic elements, even a bit of dubstep-inspired wobbling. A worthy heir to Isis’s Panopticon, a classic in post-metal (and one of our all time favorites) that offers a similarly dystopian take on modernity.

Inter Arma – Sky Burial
Richmond-based metal provocateurs Inter Arma throw the kitchen sink at this one on their exhilarating debut. The 10-minute epic, “Long Road Home,” featuring a spaced-out Americana jam that explodes into a crescendo of blackened fury, would have been my favorite metal song of the year were it not for the next record on this list…

Deafheaven – Sunbather
A record that deserves the plaudits and hype for basically blowing the doors off of black metal conventions. Alcest has long been one of our favorites in the genre, and these guys take their experiments in the lighter side of black metal to the next level. Not to wade into the shitstorm that’s enveloped these guys in the metal community, but as fans of most forward thinking black metal, we have no qualms with the increasing crossover success of the genre, especially if it leads to more moments like when we saw Liturgy open for Sleigh Bells and shred the ears of a crowd full of unsuspecting sorority girls and bros. Though you do have to wonder are how angry the church-burning set must be about a black metal album with a bright pink cover. Controversy aside, this album probably was our most listened to of the year.

SubRosa – More Constant than the Gods
Folk-tinged, female-fronted doom metal with 2 violins(!!). The sound of seemingly ancient ballads dredged up and hammered into oblivion with a pummeling but plodding metal assault. A surprisingly catchy album and a very effective soundtrack for the depressing end of fall and beginning of the long, bleak winter, or at the very least for an afternoon stuck grading exams and papers.

Coliseum – Sister Faith
The best driving music of the year – in fact, due to the circumstances when we first listened to the album, it usually conjures up memories of navigating intense freeway traffic. Simple, but powerful stuff, and a nice blend of metal aggression and punk melody. As an aside, one of the things we miss most about living in Gainesville was going to the grocery store and seeing girls shopping in random band shirts, like Coliseum. Rural North Carolina is not quite the same in this category.

Pelican – Forever Becoming
We have been following these guys for a while, but slowly had been losing interest, until the opening riff of “Deny the Absolute” shocked us back into attentiveness. An invigorating return to form, and a testament to peaks that can be reached in all-instrumental metal.

We will probably crank out one more of these retrospectives before returning to trains, so stay tuned…

In a departure from our usual format, today we are going to recap some of the records we particularly enjoyed this year, many of which contain not a single train song. This makes no claim to be a definitive list – we listen to an assortment of music that in no way is comprehensive or systematic in its approach. This is the first in a series of year-end posts grouped roughly by genre. Today let’s cover some choice selections from the alt.country/americana side of the spectrum.

Jason Isbell – Southeastern
We’ve been fans of Isbell’s work for a long time – indeed many of our favorite Drive-By Truckers songs (“The Day John Henry Died,” “Decoration Day,” “Outfit,” etc…) were Isbell creations. Southeastern is a powerful step forward for him, full of songs that hit the listener straight in the gut. As a testament to his songwriting skills, he shifts effortlessly between characters as diverse as a friend of a cancer patient, a 19th century brigand, and semi-autobiographical tales dealing with his newfound sobriety.

Futurebirds – Baba Yaga
Few bands evoke the sense of murkiness of the South, and the weirdness at the margins of this seemingly straight-laced region, than this group out of Athens, Georgia. A proper heir to the southern gothic-laced sounds of early R.E.M., or perhaps an example of what My Morning Jacket would have sounded like if they soldiered on in the vein of their early records, and kept the reverb dial turned up to 11. This one is more of a slow boil, and more of a grower than their impressive first record. So come for the immediately striking atmosphere, and stay for revelations of stunning moments like the second half of “Dig.”

Mount Moriah – Miracle Temple
Boasting what is probably our favorite album cover of the year, this North Carolina group’s sophomore record builds on the successes of their 2011 self-titled debut. Twisting and turning guitar lines from the mastermind behind one of our favorite metal groups Horseback, merge with melodic bass work, and the compelling vocals of front-woman Heather McIntyre, who first cut her teeth in the punk scene. The flaming barn on the front is a perfect encapsulation of band’s musical and lyrical tension between Old and New Souths. Perhaps this group resonates so strongly with us because the members have walked a similar path of musical growth – from metal/punk/heaviness to rural-inflected americana. Or maybe its just our move – “Swannanoa” in particular has been on repeat since our relocation to the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Austin Lucas – Stay Reckless
Yet another punk-Americana hybrid, Lucas has made a smooth shift from hardcore to acoustic bluegrass, and on the new record he turns up the electric guitars (with the help of backing band Glossary). Great stuff and a nice step forward in Lucas’s sound.

Doc Feldman & the LD50s – Sundowning at the Station
The buzz on this one by some bloggers I follow, was so heavy I had to check it out, and the hype is well-deserved. Utter bleakness translated into acoustic musical misery. Its not for the faint of heart, but its hard to find a better soundtrack to

Divided & United: Songs of the Civil War
We realize that as a music-obsessed 19th century historian we fall squarely within the target demographic for this one. But the care that went into curating this collection and the skillful execution should give this resonance outside the historical profession. Its a diverse set of songs, encompassing multiple viewpoints of the war, and performed by a variety of artists, including some real heavy hitters. Put this on and spend an hour or two in the 1860s. Sam Amidon’s “Wildwood Flower” and Old Crow Medicine Show’s rousing rendition of “Marching through Georgia” are immediate standouts, but the whole collection is even more powerful in one full run-through.